DVD review: Yoga for Baby

A devoted yoga practitioner for years, I fell “off the mat,” as they say, shortly before I became pregnant with my son, Sam, who is now 10 months old.

I keep meaning to get back to the comfort of downward dog and tree pose, but  with a little one at home  I’m doing good to get in a shower a few times a week.

Resuming my yoga practice seems like one of those things that will have to wait until the kiddo’s packed away in school. It’s hard to close your eyes and focus on your breath when your son is pulling up on the one leg you’re trying to balance on.

It’s even harder to wedge yourself into full lotus when you have to jump up every minute to keep the little angel from breaking the glass in the coffee table with one of his blocks.

So the allure of Parents’ “Yoga for Baby” was, for me, varied. It marked, I hope, a return to the serenity yoga had always brought me. It was also a chance to introduce my son to something that I had loved for years. Most of all, it was an activity we could do together.

Sadly, he didn’t get the memo.

“Yoga for Baby” might be good for the wee ones, i.e. babies that aren’t yet crawling, but it was a bust as far as my little guy was concerned. The DVD, offering brief programs for stretching, sleeping, digestion and more, shows mothers manipulating their babies’ arms and legs while the children lie passively.

First of all, Sam was not interested in lying passively. And two, when I tried to make him lie on his back so I could move his arms around, he rebelled with a red-faced scream that shot any chance of either one of us finding inner peace.

I persevered, though, hurrying across the room to pick him up from the spot to where he’d scurried off, setting him across my legs and jiggling as instructed.

This was fun. For about 30 seconds. Then he was off again.

The babies on the tape seemed to be having a pretty fine time, though, so it’s possibly my child is just not cut out for serenity now.

It is also possible that these exercises could be a godsend for people with younger babies. (There is no age-limit recommended on the DVD.) I remember Sam at 3 and 4 months, when he was more of a blob who wanted to be held all the time, but didn’t do a whole heck of a lot. At that age, he might have been more receptive to the notion of a fish pose, modified for babies.

Two things that yoga-mamas should note, also. This is, as promised, yoga for baby. It’s not Mommy-and-Me yoga, so you’re focusing solely on the bambino’s energy flow, not your own.

Two, it’s not exactly pan flutes and ocean waves. The routine’s leader, Helen Garabedian, talks in a sing-songy voice and offers up the following guidelines to a baby stretch: “North-south, east-west, inside-outside, baby you’re the best.”

Catchy, yes. But I wanted more “Ommmm,” less Dr. Seuss.

The production quality was also disappointing. There was at least one static-y sound bubble, and background noise of one baby crying, while another scene showed a mother vigorously wiping her infant’s nose.